Waiting
by AkamaiMom
Summary: Between Nemesis and Small Victories. More than a week unaccounted for. If they were my characters, here's what might have happened.
1. Chapter 1

**Waiting**

"Nice."

"What, sir?" Carter stood next to Thor's pod, fiddling with something on a control panel.

"This place—it's nice."

"It is indeed a beautiful planet, O'Neill." Teal'c descended the stairs leading to the gate and stopped next to Carter at the pod. "Has Thor's condition improved, Major Carter?"

"I don't know. He said that the pod could sustain his life indefinitely, but I don't know much about these things. I'm kind of worried about it being so far removed from any viable power source."

O'Neill joined them at the pod. Reaching out, he thumped on the glass above Thor's face. "He looks so waxy—"

In a sudden flash, the pod disappeared, leaving the three of them staring at nothing.

"Well, I guess that solves that power source problem, Carter."

Sam rocked back on her heels and looked around. Hefting her P-90, she checked its load and then adjusted her gear vest and pack. O'Neill was doing the same, while Teal'c moved over to the DHD.

"Should we attempt to dial home, Major Carter?"

Sam shook her head. "No, Teal'c, I don't think that they'll be able to get the gate on Earth up and running inside of a week."

"But they'll have _Siler_ working on it." O'Neill raised his eyebrows suggestively. "It'll take two weeks, at least."

"Sir, Siler is a perfectly capable technician. He'll figure it out." Carter shrugged. "Besides, I taught him all he needs to know."

"Well, Campers. We'd better find a place to wait, then." O'Neill waved a hand towards the woods all around them. "Let's get a bit away from the gate and make a camp. Find fresh water, forage for nuts and berries," he started walking away from the gate, "Maybe this is a resort town like Aspen. Tahoe. Sheboygan."

"I'm pretty sure that it's just trees, sir. SG-13 came here several months ago. Their report didn't mention anything except trees—"

"Right or left?"

Sam pulled a compass out of her vest pocket. "I believe SG-13 found fresh water to the east, sir."

"Right it is, then."

For several minutes they walked in companionable silence, keeping watchful eyes out for anything threatening. They fanned out over about twenty yards, coming back together at O'Neill's short whistle.

He was standing next to a pond—roughly the size of his pond in Minnesota. It was fed from the north by a stream—and there was a dam of some sort at the opposite end that allowed some water to continue on its course. Twenty feet or so of grass ringed the pond, and then started the ubiquitous trees that they seemed to run into on every planet in the galaxy.

Somewhere along the way it had become Teal'c's job to test the purity of water they found off-world. Junior managed to sort out whether it was drinkable or not.

"Teal'c?"

Teal'c squatted and dipped a hand into the water. Raising it to his lips, he paused before nodding.. "It is indeed healthful, O'Neill."

"Well, then. We'll set up here." He was already plunking his vest on the grass. "Basic perimeter and site set up." Here he paused and executed a complete 360-degree turn. "Carter?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Did you happen to pack some tents in with those Spaz-9s?"

"No sir, we were planning on the shuttles." She grinned self-deprecatingly. "I'm afraid I didn't consider this possibility, sir."

He glanced towards the sky. "Doesn't look like rain."

"We know nothing about this planet's weather system, sir, it could change at any moment." Carter paused in the middle of digging a shallow hole. She had already collected smooth stones from around the pond to ring the fire pit. "It could get ugly at any time." She returned to digging. Jack watched appreciatively as she moved. Even digging out a shallow fire pit with a stick she was graceful.

Teal'c followed his gaze and considered briefly. He didn't understand everything about the Taur'i. They seemed to be too caught up in rules and appearances. The Jaffa were much more simple about life—they did what they did. They felt what they felt. At the appropriate time they acted on it. To act contrary to what they believed was only done for self preservation.

He had seen the growing tension between O'Neill and Samantha Carter. They worked well together. They understood each other. They had achieved a status wherein they could work without extreme discomfort—Teal'c suspected this was largely due to their sublimating the intense attraction that they felt towards each other. He and Daniel Jackson had spoken of it briefly—just after their return from Hathor's stronghold.

"_Why do they not come together as man and woman?"_

"_Um. Yeah." Daniel Jackson had blushed and shaken his head slightly. "They can't. It's not allowed under the rules of the Air Force." _

"_I believe that they would find much comfort and pleasure if they were permitted to do so."_

"_Yeah. I do too, Teal'c," Daniel Jackson had met his gaze. "But with the rules as they are, they would also feel a lot of guilt. They would feel as if they had dishonored the code they've chosen to live by. They are people extremely attracted to each other. But they are also soldiers. They live by honor. You know all about that."_

_And Teal'c had inclined his head. He did know all about that._

Now he watched as O'Neill watched Samantha Carter. The hunger on the man's face was evident.

"O'Neill." Teal'c moved towards him. "This doesn't appear to be a planet inhabited by anything that might cause harm."

"Yeah. So?" Jack looked up at the big Jaffa.

"It occurs to me that I might make use of this time away from the SGC to reunite with my wife and Rya'c."

"That sounds fun." O'Neill jerked his head back over to where Carter was now placing the stones around the edge of the pit. "Oy, Carter—wanna go visit the Jaffa?"

Teal'c raised an eyebrow and inclined his head. "O'Neill."

"Yeah, Teal'c?"

"Perhaps I did not make myself clear. It has been much time since I have seen my wife and son. The home they have established is very small."

"It'll be cozy."

"There will be little room for the sort of privacy my wife and I might crave."

O'Neill took a deep breath and turned his back completely on Carter. He leaned closer to Teal'c and removed his sunglasses. "What are you suggesting here, Teal'c?"

"That I might spend some time alone with my wife and son, O'Neill. Nothing more."

"You do know that if you leave, Carter and I will be here alone."

"Indeed."

"I'm not so sure that's such a great idea."

"Because you do not believe Major Carter to be an acceptable companion?" Teal'c's brow rose even further. "Somehow I do not think you take issue with that, Colonel O'Neill."

Jack grimaced and raised a hand to scratch his head. Glancing at Sam again, he turned his back on her and leaned closer to the Jaffa. "It's just that. . ." He stopped and took a deep breath. Finally, he met Teal'c's eyes. "She's a girl."

"She is a soldier and an officer."

"Yeah." Jack spread his hands in a blatant plea. "She's _Carter_, Teal'c."

"Exactly my point, O'Neill. I have often observed you and Major Carter together. You work well as a team and seem to enjoy each others' company." Teal'c bent his torso slightly in a Jaffa bow. He turned his attention back to Sam. "Major Carter."

Sam sat back on her heels and looked up at him. She had been unobtrusively watching their interaction, but unable to hear the conversation. "Yeah, Teal'c?"

"I have decided to travel alone through the Chappa'i to my wife and son. I will return tomorrow with provisions and tents. Is this plan amenable to you?"

Sam put down the stone she was holding, stood and crossed the meadow to where he and Colonel O'Neill stood. "You're leaving?"

"It has been many weeks since I have been able to engage in congress with my wife. I find myself much desirous of spending time with my family."

Sam smiled slightly, glancing at Jack, whose face had reddened considerably. To be honest, she loved it when he got embarrassed. He was such an old world guy. He got flustered whenever any mention of physical contact between two people came up in the course of conversation. This "congress with my wife" stuff must be killing him. Her lips twitched before she could completely control the urge to laugh.

Teal'c's voice brought her back. "Is this decision acceptable to you?"

Sam smiled and glanced again at her CO. "Yeah. Sure, Teal'c. Have a great time. I can safely say that we've got about a week to cool our heels here."

"I will return in a few days with provisions."

Jack coughed. With his index finger, he punctuated the air. "Yes. Return. Soon. Provisions."

And with another slight bow, Teal'c headed back towards the 'Gate.

Jack watched him for a long time, clearly at a loss. Finally, he turned to Sam, who was industriously testing the bendiness of local tree branches. "Can you believe that guy?" He flung his hands out wide. "You think you know someone. Way of the warrior and all that crap and he leaves us defenseless here so he can go and schtup his wife."

Sam hid a snort behind a branch. She bit her lips together and tried not to laugh.

"I mean, really. What's more important? Congress or—" He flailed one hand between himself and his second. "Us? What if there are big honkin' space tigers here? Or nasty bugs like the ones on—" He stopped, clearly unable to remember the planet's designation. He thought of something else, and stuck a triumphant pose. "What if it snows?"

Sam glanced at the perfectly cloudless, blue sky from behind her branch. "Snow, sir?" That's when she lost it completely and erupted into laughter.


	2. Chapter 2

She was still giggling several hours later when it finally darkened into night. The Colonel had caught several small, silvery fish with the line and hooks he always kept in his gear vest. He had been surprised at her ability and willingness to gut and clean the fish while he had laid the fire.

"It wasn't really that funny, Carter."

"If you say so, sir." She snorted back a laugh.

"You know, it's not polite to laugh at your CO. And I think I ordered you not to giggle."

"When was that?"

"Antarctica."

She glanced up at him across the fire. She was sitting on the grass by her fire pit, leaning up against her pack. The work of the day had left her warm, but the evening had cooled considerably and she had draped her SGC uniform shirt over her like a blanket. "Sorry, sir."

He said nothing in return, but checked the last of his fishing hooks. He had cleaned them after the meal and carefully coiled the line up again. He placed the last hook back in the package and stuffed it all in his pocket.

"Yes, well," he dragged it out as only he could. "Don't let it happen again." He looked over the fire at her. The glow caught the gold highlights in her hair and the blue of her eyes. He immediately looked away. "Better sack up. It's been a day."

He turned to punch at his pack, trying to form it into some sort of pillow. He lay on his side, facing the forest, away from the fire.

"I'm too old for this sleeping on the ground crap."

His grumble made Sam smile ruefully as she turned her back on the banked flames, too.

"Goodnight, sir."

But he didn't say anything else.

The next morning, Sam woke to find herself alone next to the coals of the fire. She sat up quickly and looked around for her CO. The lake was silent, the woods around her whiffed gently in the breeze. She stretched to work the kinks out of her back and shoulders, and then stood and stretched again. She had to pee.

Normally, when the team was all together, she could be sure that she could leave the camp because there were others to take charge. Daniel, conveniently in the SGC's infirmary (again) and Teal'c weren't there, so she couldn't just disappear into the woods to relieve herself. She shifted her weight from side to side for a moment, but it didn't really help. She really had to pee.

She silently cursed Daniel's appendix and Teal'c's Jaffa libido, then realized what she was doing and laughed slightly. Holy Hannah. Now she really _really_ really had to pee.

From several yards away she heard a zipper, and then whistling. Turning towards the direction of the sound, she watched with relief as her CO emerged from the woods.

"Morning, Carter. Dancing yet?" Her tiny bladder had been a joke since that first mission, after she'd drunk too much of Skaara's moonshine and spent the rest of the evening whizzing it off.

She rolled her eyes internally and bolted for the trees opposite to the ones from which he'd emerged.

Jack watched until she'd disappeared into the thick woods. If he heard screams, he'd know in which direction to run. Not that anything on this planet seemed to be in the least threatening. He'd been mildly surprised to find fish in the pond.

He putzed around for a few minutes at the campfire, and then reached into his pocket for his line and hooks. Might as well make himself useful.

By that second nightfall they had established a routine of sorts. He fished, she made routine treks back towards the 'Gate to attempt to dial home. He cleverly decided that east of camp was to be the Boy's Room, and west would be the Girl's Room. She figured out a way to track how long a day on the planet was in comparison to time on the planet where Teal'c was. She didn't expect him until the following morning–this planet's day was considerably shorter.

When O'Neill wondered aloud why Teal'c hadn't returned, she explained the probable reason for the delay. He raised his brow in a perfect imitation of the Jaffa and snorted.

"What, sir?"

"I don't think his delay has anything to do with time differentials on planets."

"Sir?"

O'Neill suddenly got inhumanly interested in his bootlace.

"Sir?" Carter repeated her question.

"I think it has everything to do with Congress. An act of Congress—or several acts in a row. Lots of votes."

Carter had laughed out loud at that pronouncement.

In all, however, she mused later as she lay in her makeshift bunk, she was surprised at how easy it had been. After the palpable tension they had been laboring under for the past few years, she'd expected them both to be jumpy.

Instead, they had fallen into a comfortable rhythm that hadn't been at all stilted. There hadn't been huge amounts of talking. Mostly scouting, work, and the easy camaraderie that had always been there after the first few missions. They knew each other so well that they didn't need to talk much in order to get things done.

Like an old married couple. She smiled into the pack she was using as a pillow. That was a thought worth falling asleep on.

O'Neill, on the other side of the fire, heard her soft sigh and groaned inwardly. The past few days had been full of those little moments. Normally, he had to pretend they didn't exist. He was good at _not_ noticing things about her. Like how she couldn't have a meal without reading something. Whenever she became really interested in something she was reading, her chewing slowed. Watching that mouth of hers work like that had become one of the most exquisite tortures of his adult life.

Not that he noticed.

He also didn't notice how she quietly made things easier for him. He knew she didn't enjoy cleaning fish, and yet she did it anyway. She had discovered and gathered a pile of soft leaves that she'd dubbed Alien Charmin. She'd started building a shelter of lithe, springy branches secured with vines she'd foraged from the forest. She was always there with a blade or a jury-rigged tool of some sort just when he needed her, and never seemed to need praise or encouragement. Her quiet support could not have been more professional nor more needed.

Jack, on the other hand, felt as if he was going to explode at any moment. Usually he had other people to filter his moods through. Other eyes around reminding him not to admire the way cammies could ride just _so_ on hips like _that_. Normally, when he found himself gazing for too long, a discreet cough from Daniel or glare from Teal'c could bring him back to reality.

With none of those filters around, he forgot _not_ to notice. He found himself noticing more than he ever had before. And cursing himself for twenty different kinds of idiot for not being able to look away.

That sigh was another thing he forced himself not to notice. Nope, he wouldn't think about that sigh at all.

That sigh kept him awake until the fire had burned down to coals.


	3. Chapter 3

Day Three.

"Whatcha listening to, Carter?" He whacked her on the shoulder with the back of his hand, motioning to the iPod.

"Little of everything, sir."

She handed him the one of the earbuds. Hers were the in-ear kind. Bose, of course. He glanced at the thing briefly, struck by the intimacy of sharing them. He scooted closer to her so that he could insert it without stretching the cord.

The music was loud and pounding. Some guy was singing with a kind of scratchy voice and a lot of guitar and heavy drums.

"Who is this?" He yelled at her over the noise.

Carter leaned closer to him and fiddled with the dial on the iPod. Her hair tickled his nose, and he could smell her. Damn. Even after three days on the planet, she smelled good.

"See? It tells you if you touch the dial. Nickelback. 'Follow You Home'."

"Is that a band?"

She looked up at him sideways. Her mouth twisted in the sort of smile that he dreamed about but hated seeing in person. The kind of smile that made him want too much.

"Nickelback is the band. 'Follow You Home' is the song."

He made a sound that she'd learned was a positive one. She leaned back against the log and let her head fall back.

"Is this music supposed to be relaxing?" O'Neill was yelling again.

Sam sighed and fiddled with the dial again. After a brief pause, a different scratchy voiced guy was singing. He thought he might recognize the voice. "Sting?"

Sam smiled, impressed. "Yeah—one of my favorite albums. 'Nothing Like the Sun'."

O'Neill nodded and settled in to listen for a few minutes. Sam silently counted to twenty-three before he fidgeted again. Resigned, she pulled the earpiece from her own ear and stuck it into his unoccupied ear. She quickly selected something else from the menu and handed him the IPod. As soon as he recognized what was on the screen, he grinned in that lopsided way that never failed to make her go a little woozy.

"Tetris?"

"The controls are a little shifty, but I think you can handle it, sir."

His look clearly told her the depth of his affection for her.

She smiled back. "I know."

Day Four.

Teal'c brought a few days' worth of supplies, a few blankets, and a tent of sorts. The weather had been so accommodating that they set the tent aside for possible future use. The Jaffa had left again almost as soon as he'd dropped off the packs, stating that he was needed as a sparring partner for Rya'c. Sam accompanied him back to the 'Gate, but didn't hurry her return to camp. It had been four days since their arrival. They hadn't met a threat, alien or otherwise. Sam hadn't even been bitten by a mosquito. In other circumstances, she would have recommended the place as a perfect vacation—a perfect honeymoon locale.

She grinned. Stopping, she turned and looked around her. The planet was beautiful. Azure skies, green meadows and dense forests. Nights filled with stars. It was too much. Stuck in paradise with the one man she couldn't enjoy it with. O'Neill. Colonel O'Neill. Never had her unfortunate taste in men steered her so wrong. He was everything she'd never wanted and couldn't have even if she did. He was perfect. Crotchety, obtuse at times, brilliant at others. He made her laugh at herself. She was aware of herself and her own femininity around him in a way she'd never been before. He was--sexy—she stopped herself there and sighed. She couldn't pretend otherwise.

She caught sight of him before he noticed her. He was fishing again. The light from the descending sun bathed him in a mellow glow. He sat quietly—the only time he could do that was when he was fishing. Or on recon. Or sizing up a sniper shot. Or watching her without wanting her to notice him watching her.

She took a step forward, purposefully stepping on a branch.

"Make noise much?" He twiddled with the line. "You'll scare off dinner."

"Sorry, sir." She hesitated briefly and then walked over and sat down next to him on the bank.

He moved the line again. She tried not to look at his hands. Incongruously—his hands had the elegance of a concert pianist's. Long fingers, wide palms. She wondered—and then stopped herself before she relished the image.

"Chilly?"

"Sir?" Reality intruded.

"You shivered. Are you cold?"

"No."

"Yet, you shivered."

"Are you keeping track of my shivering?"

"That's my job, isn't it?"

"To what?"

"Bring the team home safe—"

"I can take care of myself, sir. With all due respect you don't need to worry yourself with my shivering."

He didn't answer for a moment. The line had gone taut and after a few moments, dinner lay on the bank between them. They busied themselves with the process of gutting and preparing the catch for cooking.

"Maybe you were shivering for some other reason."

She forgot to be subordinate. "What's that supposed to mean?"

But he'd already moved on to preparing the fire, leaving her to wonder.

"What was your most successful relationship?" He asked later.

They had discussed the Simpsons through the dinner. It was obvious that he had work to do there. Carter didn't even know who Krusty was. She'd thought he was a condition treatable with topical steroids. After a long pause he'd started asking her random questions—favorite high school class (Physics), what kind of car she'd driven first (Fiat Spyder 2000), first job (summer intern at a local observatory).

"Which kind of relationship? Friend, family—"

"Other."

"Working—"

"Significant."

Sam paused, carefully not looking anywhere near the man reclined next to her.

"Oddly enough, sir, you."

"How's that?"

"You're not dead yet."

O'Neill hmmphed. Score one for longevity.

"How about you?"

O'Neill considered that for a long moment, fiddling with a blade of grass.

"Probably Teal'c."

For a brief second, her heart stalled. She bit her lip and shot him a sideways glance. "Teal'c?"

"I know exactly what he wants. His motivations. I know what he thinks. He knows what I need before I ask. We work together perfectly." The blade of grass suddenly snapped, and he twirled it once more before flipping off to one side. "Why?"

"I thought it would be someone else."

"Daniel?"

"Sara."

That completely caught him off guard. Sam filled the awkward silence by blurting, "You married her. You had a child with her. You asked for her in Antarctica. Something obviously went right for a while."

Jack scrutinized her from beneath furrowed brows. "I didn't know we were talking personal relationships—"

"I didn't mean to pry. I'm sorry."

It would have taken an entire planet to fill the awkward hole left in the conversation.

He tried to, anyway. "Sara and I were wrong from the start. She knew I did—things that she didn't know about. She doesn't understand the kind of people that we--" he motioned with his hand between himself and Sam, connecting them somehow. "The kind of people that we are. The kinds of things that we have to do sometimes."

Carter nodded. She knew exactly what he was trying to say. And she knew that the conversation had gone somewhere it shouldn't have. She knew the ground they were both treading was uneven—even dangerous.

"She wouldn't have approved of them, though. She was an idealist back then. Truth, justice and the American way and all that."

He shrugged. "She had never seen the really bad guys. Even after Iraq. She thought the scars were from the bad jump—she didn't think that there were still people that tortured other people." He pulled another blade of grass out of the ground and started systematically shredding it. "She never would have understood that they enjoyed it."

Jack turned his head to look at Sam. "She never will understand why some people have to die. Why some people deserve to die."

Sam couldn't help it. "Yet you still love her."

She was too close, suddenly. He could feel the warmth of her body next to him. He could smell that indefinable scent that only belonged to Sam. He could see the absolute understanding in her amazing blue eyes. "How do you stop loving someone you know is wrong for you? Someone you can't have?"

Sam shook her head slightly. She couldn't breathe. She was certain that her heart had stopped beating. When she could speak, it was a whisper. "I don't know."

"Me, either." Abruptly, he stood, brushed the grass off his butt, and headed into the dark woods.

He didn't return until he was certain she was asleep. She'd kicked off the thin blanket Teal'c had brought for her to use. It took every ounce of self control he possessed not to tuck her back into the makeshift bed she'd fashioned for herself.

Not to climb in there with her.


	4. Chapter 4

Day 5.

"Fish again?"

"Got something else?" His voice was harder than normal.

"No, sir."

"Then, I guess it's fish again."

Day 6.

"Carter—you got any more of that Alien Charmin?"

"I'll go get some, sir." And she'd been grateful for the task. A chance to escape the things she wanted to say.

Day 7.

He'd noticed that her iPod was continually on.

"Doesn't that thing need to be recharged?"

"I—uh—tweaked with it, sir."

"How so?"

"I enhanced the battery with Naquadah." She met his eyes for the first time in days. "I only have to charge it and my cell phone once every decade or so now, sir."

"What other games you got?"

Day 8.

O'Neill met Teal'c at the 'Gate.

"'Bout time."

"Have you been needing me for some task, O'Neill?"

Jack paused, throwing aside the twig he'd been de-barking. "Nah—It's just been boring."

"I would have used the word 'relaxing' to describe this place. Are you not normally wishing to take yourself and your team to a location such as this on Earth?"

"Yeah. But that would be the whole team, T—not just me and—. . ." He stopped. Bent. Picked up a smooth stone.

"Not just you and Samantha Carter?"

The stone garnered O'Neill's entire attention. Teal'c watched him fidget.

"O'Neill?"

"What, Teal'c?"

"Is her womanhood that which is discomforting you?"

"Her what? Womanhoo—T—don't go there. I'm warning you."

"Has she attempted to seduce you or beguile you?"

"Begui—T—no, man. Nothing like that."

"I would have thought to have a few days together would be beneficial to the two of you."

"In what way?"

"Perhaps without the prying eyes of the SGC, you might come to terms with your emotional attachment for one another."

Jack didn't answer that, only rubbed his thumb over the stone before rearing back and throwing it deep into the woods.

"I had hoped that by leaving you and Major Carter alone for a time, you would find a way to decide mutually upon a course of future action."

Teal'c had never seen O'Neill so quiet for so long. When he did speak, it was without the usual surliness.

"We can't T. No matter how much—you know. We might want to. We can't have that conversation. Not with who we are—where we're from. What we are. Besides—she's _her_, and I'm just—this. It's not right."

Teal'c lowered the pack of supplies he'd brought with him. He laid them at O'Neill's feet.

"But you are here. Not on Earth. As of yet you have not been able to contact the SGC. It is not known whether Sergeant Siler will be able to connect the 'Gate and open the wormhole. Perhaps you should make use of this time. Perhaps this will be the only time you can have this conversation. General Hammond does not need to know. Here there is only you and her. Here there are no regulations."

And with that, the Jaffa turned back to the 'Gate. He turned back only once as the ka-whoosh lit up the evening. "Do not waste this time, O'Neill. You do not know when it will end."


	5. Chapter 5

Day 9.

Jack had rigged a noose from some thin rope Carter kept in her pack. He'd seen a burrow of some sort in the woods and wanted to see if he could add to their food sources. Rabbits tasted like chickens, after all, even if they were cuter. He hated the idea of killing a critter, but he was really _really_ tired of fish. And son of a gun, but the thing had worked. He'd snagged a fat one right around dinner time.

He and Sam hadn't exchanged more than a few words all day. The tension between had built up until he could practically see it coursing around them. She hadn't slept well, he knew, because he'd been awake all night watching her. At one point she'd sighed his name.

He'd taken another walk in the woods.

This afternoon, she looked haunted.

"How do you think Siler's getting along?"

"I don't know, sir. He's Siler. Who knows how he gets through any day without killing himself?"

"Patience, Carter. You trained him well."

"We should be home by now."

He glanced over at her. She sat near the fire, stoking the coals. Once she'd realized what he was up to with the snare, she'd started building a spit. They were going to roast the rabbit—or whatever it was. She paused in her movements and he could see her hands shake slightly.

"You all right?"

"Does it matter?"

"I think it does."

She was silent for another moment before replying.

"You haven't spoken to me for days, sir. I have no idea with you think."

He walked over to her with the spitted creature and handed it to her. With efficient, careful movements, she set it in place. Only then did she glance up at him through her eyelashes.

Jack was studying her. She felt his gaze on her cheek, her hands, the curve of her shoulder. Finally, deliberately, he met her eyes. Dark brown and azure connected.

She stood, never breaking his gaze. "Does it really matter how I am?"

"You know it does."

"Do I? How?"

"We're not playing these games, Carter."

"I'm not playing games, sir."

His fingers stopped her words. "Not this time—not with the 'sir'." His fingertips grazed her cheekbone, and his thumb skimmed the corner of her mouth. "If we are going to have this conversation, you leave the 'sir' out of it."

"What conversation are we talking about?"

"The one that will allow us to keep working together once Siler figures out how to do your job and gets us home."

The noise she made might have been one of assent. It also might have been a sob.

"You are an extraordinary woman, Sam Carter. You are smart and tough and kind and kick-ass. You are so beautiful it makes my teeth ache, and I have found myself increasingly unable to look at you just as a team member." He raised her chin so that she had to look at him. "I want something—everything—more than we can have. Do you understand that?"

"Yes. Yes."

"But there's a threat to the whole galaxy out there. A threat that you and I are remarkably good at dealing with."

"I know."

"So you know why we can't—have that. It. Anything. Not now."

"Yes."

But his fingertips still lingered on her cheek, and she couldn't stop herself from leaning into the touch. And he couldn't stop himself from feeling just how soft her hair was where it curled beneath her ear. And somehow the space between them disappeared and he had her wrapped close to him and her arms were tight around his neck. And when he turned his face into the curve between her neck and shoulder and breathed in her essence, somehow it wasn't possible for his lips not to graze her temple, her cheek, the graceful line of her jaw. And in a fumble of hands and sighs, they stopped, nose to nose.

"I want. You."

It didn't matter who had spoken. It filled the void.

"Just once—"

His hands travelled again down her throat, over the strong curve of her shoulders, down her straight back to settle on her waist.

She exhaled brokenly as his rough cheek brushed hers. His lips hovered just above hers for what seemed like an eternity before skimming, teasing, testing.

It was the most innocent kiss of her life.

And the most profound.

And when it was over, she knew that she'd found her future and he knew that he'd found his salvation.

And both of them knew they'd have to wait.

Until the threat was gone—or lessened. Until they could sort out the particulars. For the time being, they would just stand there, locked together by an alien pond on an alien planet.

"So here we are." He said an age later.

"Here we are." They were still standing by the fire. A glance at the spitted rabbit thing told her they'd checked out long enough to burn dinner.

"What happens next?"

"We wait for Siler. But at least now we know, right? We've gotten this far. But it's as far as it can go."

"For cryin' out loud." He pulled her closer to him again, memorizing what it felt like to be just that close.

"It's as far as it can go." But she didn't let go, either. Her hands wandered up his back and curled around his shoulders.

"In the morning we'll dial the 'Gate. If we don't connect, we'll just have to crash Teal'c's little congressional dialogue."

"No more alone time."

"Too dangerous."

"I'm not sorry."

"Me neither." He smiled against the gold of her hair. Rested his chin on the top of her head. Then, bracing himself, he dropped a kiss on her crown and pulled himself away. He smiled ruefully. "Major."

She allowed herself one more touch at his temple, a light brush of her fingertips down his strong jaw, throat, and collarbone. Her hand rested briefly on his heart before dropping to her side. She breathed deeply and nodded.

"Sir."


End file.
